CityBeat Blogs - Mayorhttp://www.citybeat.com/cincinnati/blogs-1-1-1-34-93.html
Kim
Lahman was doing cartwheels in her mind for Metro this morning.

The
organization’s Ridership and Development Director celebrated Metro’s
announcement on Thursday that it will provide health and dental benefits to
domestic partners of its employees.

Lahman
said she has used same-sex partner benefits in the past, when she went back to
school.

“[My
partner and I] know first-hand what it means to have the flexibility and
equality as others do in the workplace,” Lahman said at a press conference at
Metro’s office. “This is just a fantastic day and I’m so proud that Metro is
able to do the right thing.”

Metro
is the first employer to say it will use Cincinnati’s domestic partner registry
if the initiative passes next week in City Council. Should it pass, Cincinnati
will be the 10th city in Ohio to have a domestic partner registry.

Mayor
John Cranley and City Councilman Chris Seelbach attended the press conference
and spoke in support of the move.

Cranley
called it “symbolically and substantively right” and during the
announcement shared a memory in honor of Maya Angelou, her poem “On the Pulse
of Morning” at former President Bill Clinton’s inauguration in 1993.

“She
ended it with ‘Good morning,’” Cranley said. “I think this is a good morning
for Cincinnati, a new day.”

Many
of Cincinnati’s major employers, including Procter & Gamble, Kroger and
Macy’s offer same-sex and domestic partner benefits.

Seelbach
said while those companies already have systems to evaluate domestic
partnerships, the registry will give other companies like Metro an easy way to
provide those benefits.

“We
are now leaders in the nation and the region to make sure everyone is welcome
in our city, regardless of who they love,” Seelbach said. “Everyone should
bring their full self to their workplace and be able to do that with health
benefits for their partners.”

Seelbach
said while Metro is the first to say it will use the registry, other companies
like Cincinnati Bell have expressed interest.

Metro
is a nonprofit tax-funded public service of the Southwestern Ohio Regional
Transit Authority (SORTA) with around 850 employees.

One
of SORTA’s executive statements says the organization is committed to a work
environment that “promotes dignity and respect for all.”

Board
Chair Jason Dunn said SORTA’s commitment to inclusion is a great business
decision.

“It
shows that we value our employees,” Dunn said. “It shows that not only is Metro
on the cutting edge of transportation but also making sure we are open to
talent and we are open to retaining great talent in our system.”

Same-sex
partners with a valid marriage license, same-sex partners registered by a
government entity and same-sex partners with a sworn affidavit will be
recognized by Metro for domestic partner benefits, which will take effect
January 1, 2015.

]]>

The city’s cost of a long-planned piece of
cycling infrastructure could more than double if City Council approves a
motion Vice Mayor David Mann planned to introduce on April 23.

Mayor John Cranley successfully paused
the Central Parkway Bikeway Project for public discourse in response to a
handful of business owners and residents taking exception to it, and a
spokesman for Mann shared his suggested compromise with CityBeat today.

In response to an April 21 special
Neighborhoods Committee meeting, Mann seeks to alter the bike route to
appease people who don’t want to see parking spaces removed, but the
updated plan will cost an additional $110,00 on top of the $82,600 the
city would pay under the original plan, which would create the beginning
of a cycling corridor running from Elm Street downtown to Ludlow Avenue
in Clifton. The project was supposed to break ground next month and
could lose $330,400 in federal money if the contract isn’t awarded by
May 1.

“We routinely spend hundreds of thousands
of dollars as a city to create new jobs in our community,” Mann said in
a statement. “We should not approve a new project that places 60 newly
created jobs in jeopardy when such a sensible accommodation is
available.”

The planned bikeway is an innovative
piece of cycling infrastructure meant to better protect cyclists along a
critical thoroughfare that would connect a number of inner-city
neighborhoods and business districts. The lane will be protected,
meaning cyclists will have their own lane with a buffer separating them
from traffic; in some areas plastic bollards will separate the bike and
automobile lanes. The street will not be widened, so traffic lanes will
be impacted through restriping, and parking will be restricted during
peak traffic hours in the morning and evening.

Opponents of the project are concerned
about losing public, on-street parking for parts of the day as well as
potentially encountering traffic issues from shaving lanes from Brighton
Place to Liberty Street. They also worry the bollards will become a
blight issue and emergency vehicles will be impeded during one-lane
hours.

Mann’s motion supports an alternative
plan for a section running from Ravine Street to Brighton Place that
would preserve 23 parking spaces full-time, alter 4,300 square feet of
greenspace and remove 15 trees at an estimated cost of $110,000. The
parking spaces would benefit a building owner and his tenants at 2145
Central Parkway.

City Councilman Chris Seelbach and others
demonstrated frustration with the administration’s interest in stepping
in at the 11th hour.

“I think we have reached a new era in
Cincinnati: two steps forward, pause, lots of long meetings, two steps
forward, and I’m convinced after the pause and lots of long meetings, we
will continue to go two steps forward today,” Seelbach said at the
April 21 meeting.

Mayor Cranley requested City Manager
Scott Stiles delay awarding a contract after meeting with local business
owner Tim Haines, who purchased a vacant building located at 2145
Central Parkway in 2012 for $230,000. His building now houses 65
employees from 12 different businesses including his own, Relocation
Strategies. Haines has become a mouthpiece for the opposition to the
bikeway — though he adamantly states he is not against the lane; he is
just against the project’s current incarnation as it affects Central
Parkway near his business, which utilizes 500 feet of on-street,
unmetered parking, which translates to 30 parking spaces.

“If parking wasn’t an issue, I would open
up my arms and welcome the bike path,” Haines says. “Parking for my 65
tenants is in jeopardy. As a business owner I have to fight for my
tenants. … Could they park and walk a quarter of a mile? They could, but
that’s not what they signed up for when they moved in.”

Haines has a 16-space parking lot
adjacent to his building that some of his tenants use and also owns a
parking lot across the street that is in disrepair. Haines says he
already cleared it of underbrush to cut down criminal activity and
disposed of dozens of tires and beer bottles. He says it would cost up
to $300,000 to upgrade the lot.

During the April 21 presentation,
Department of Transportation and Engineering (DOTE) Director Michael
Moore presented the committee with an alternative recently developed
with Cranley’s office that he said would appease Haines and his tenants
but would cost more money. Moore pushed the notion that the alternative
creates a more balanced bikeway plan.

The original plan, passed by council last
year, restricts parking in front of Haines’ building from 7 a.m. to 9
a.m. Moore’s alternative, which Mann is on board with, is to ramp the
bike lane over the curb adjacent to a sidewalk where there is currently a
tree-lined area in front of Haines’ building and another business in
order to preserve public parking full-time.

At the meeting, council member Young took exception to the suggestion of changing the project at this point.

“For the life of me, I don’t see where
the reasonableness and the balance is with people who come so far after
the fact that want us to make these changes and the dollar amount it’s
going to cost the taxpayers to get it done,” Young said. “I am appalled
that people can come after the fact and tie up all these people down
here to simply want accommodations for them.”

Mann shared another perspective.

“There’s a gentleman who has brought 60
jobs to the city, including some folks who have Parkinson’s and use the
building, and the proposal that’s being made seems to me to represent
balance,” Mann said. “We spend millions of dollars, typically, to
support development, to support jobs, and you’re saying that the
proposal that was originally approved by this council without a hearing
like this is so pristine that it cant be adjusted in any way, and if
it’s adjusted that is a statement of imbalance? I just don’t follow
that.”

For the past year and a half, DOTE
conducted surveys, sought public input and developed plans for the
bikeway. After a strong consensus, the department chose the protected
bikeway plan. The bikeway is estimated to add just three seconds of
motorist commute time by 2030, though some naysayers suggest that
delivery trucks will clog the lanes and the turn left from Ravine Street
will create an even longer lag.

Community outreach for the design began
in March of last year with eight community council meetings. Letters
were mailed to residents, businesses and property owners, but Haines and
several other business owners stated they didn’t receive any and
weren’t aware of the project until late last year.

A website designed for public feedback
also garnered about 600 messages mainly supporting the bikeway project.
DOTE held an open house last September and the Over-The-Rhine and
Northside community councils, Findlay Market and Northside Business
Association endorsed the project.

Simpson expressed frustration with halting progress for a last-minute meeting.

“I don’t think that’s an appropriate
process,” she said. “Really, technically you can go over everything over
the past two years. The reality is we need to look forward. If we want
to be less auto-focused and more focused on other types of transit,
we’re going to have to ruffle a couple of feathers.”

Supporters — some who biked to the April
21 meeting and utilized a bike valet setup in front of City Hall —
represented various groups of the community from health and community
councils to business owners and cyclists. Their number doubled opponents
— mainly business owners along Central Parkway in the West End and the
West End Community Council, though some West End residents and business
owners supported the original bikeway plan.

]]>

Mayor John Cranley is trying to find a compromise
over whether early voting will move out of downtown after the 2016
general election, as some Republicans in the county government
have suggested. Cranley called for a meeting with Hamilton County Board
of Elections Chairman and Hamilton County Democratic Party Chairman Tim
Burke, Hamilton County Republican Party Chairman Alex Triantafilou,
Cincinnati NAACP President Ishton Morton and Hamilton County Board of
Commissioners President Chris Monzel. The meeting will aim to “discuss
alternatives the City of Cincinnati can offer to accommodate early
voting downtown after the 2016 elections. (Cranley) believes that such a
discussion is consistent with the recommendation of the secretary of
state that there be an effort to find a nonpartisan solution to the
existing disagreement.”

With a $12 million price tag in mind, Cranley remains worried
Cincinnati is paying too much for a downtown grocery and apartment tower
project. But the project is truly one of a kind, claims The Business Courier:
The tower would boast nearly twice the number of luxury apartments of
any other project underway in Over-the-Rhine or downtown. And it would
replace a decrepit garage and establish the first full-scale grocery
store downtown in decades.

A study found Ohio teens’ painkiller abuse dropped by 40
percent between 2011 and 2013. State officials quickly took credit for
the drop, claiming their drug prevention strategies are working. But
because the Ohio Youth Risk Behavior Survey only has two sets of data on
painkillers to work with — one in 2011 and another in 2013 — it’s
possible the current drop is more statistical noise than a genuine
downturn, so the 2015 and 2017 studies will be under extra scrutiny to
verify the trend.

Personal note: This is my last “Morning News and Stuff” and blog for CityBeat.
After today, I will be leaving to Washington, D.C., for a new
journalistic venture started by bloggers and reporters from The Washington Post and Slate. (CityBeat
Editor Danny Cross wrote a lot of nice things about the move here, and
my last commentary touched on it here.) Thank you to everyone who read
my blogs during my nearly two years at CityBeat, and I hope I helped you understand the city’s complicated, exciting political and economic climate a little better, even if you sometimes disagreed with what I wrote.

Flaherty & Collins, the developer that wants to tear
down a garage as part of its downtown grocery and apartment tower
project, offered to pay for a tenant’s move to keep the deal moving
forward. The tenant, Paragon Salon, recently announced its intent to sue
the city after Mayor John Cranley’s refusal to pay for the salon
business’s move left the development project and Paragon in a limbo of
uncertainty. With Flaherty & Collins’ offer, the development deal
should be able to advance without extra costs to the city.

Federal money will help Cincinnati keep and hire more
firefighters. The Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response
(SAFER) grant provides nearly $8.1 million — about 2 percent of the
city’s $370 million operating budget — to pay the salaries and benefits
of 50 firefighters for two years. Afterward, the city will need to pick
up the costs, which could worsen an operating budget gap that currently
sits at $22 million for fiscal 2015. The move would increase the
Cincinnati Fire Department’s staffing levels from 841 to 879 and help prevent brownouts, according to the firefighting agency.

The Cincinnati Board of Health defied Mayor Cranley by
unilaterally pursuing a $1.3 million grant that will provide
preventative and primary care services to underserved populations. Rocky
Merz, spokesperson for the board, says the grant application complies
with guidance from the city’s top lawyer. Cranley opposes the grant because the extra services it enables could push up costs for the city down the line.

Hamilton County officials will look for outside legal help in
their fight against the city’s job training rules for Metropolitan Sewer
District projects.CityBeat covered the rules, known as “responsible bidder,” in further detail here.

Ohio’s prison re-entry rate declined and sits
well below the national average, according to a study from the Ohio
Department of Rehabilitation and Correction. The study found 27.1
percent of inmates released in 2010 ended up back up in prison, down
from 28.7 percent of individuals released in 2009. In comparison, the
national average is 44 percent.

A second baby might have been cured of HIV, the sexually
transmitted disease that causes AIDS. Even with the potential successes,
doctors caution it’s still very much unclear whether the treatment
provides a definitive cure for the deadly disease.

A group of Greenpeace protesters face burglary and vandalism charges after a stunt yesterday on
the Procter & Gamble buildings. Protesters apparently teamed up with a helicopter to climb
outside the P&G buildings to hang up a large sign criticizing the
company for allegedly enabling the destruction of rainforests in
Indonesia by working with an irresponsible palm oil supplier. P&G
officials say they are looking into the protesters’ claims, but they
already committed to changing how they obtain palm oil by 2015.

Cincinnati Center City Development Corp. (3CDC) will step in
to resolve the status of a downtown grocery and apartment tower
project. The previous city administration pushed the project as a means
to bring more residential space downtown, but Mayor John Cranley refuses
to pay to move a tenant in the parking garage that needs to be torn
down as part of the project. Following Cranley and Councilman Chris Seelbach’s request for 3CDC’s help, the development agency will recommend a
path forward and outline costs to the city should it not complete the
project.

Meanwhile, the tenants in the dispute announced today that
they will sue the city to force action and stop the uncertainty
surrounding their salon business.

Cranley insists politics were not involved in an
appointment to the Cincinnati Board of Health, contrary to complaints
from the board official the mayor opted to replace. Cranley will replace
Joyce Kinley, whose term expired at the end of the month, with Herschel
Chalk. “Herschel Chalk, who(m) I’m appointing, has been a long-time
advocate against prostate cancer, who's somebody I’ve gotten to know,”
Cranley told WVXU. “I was impressed by him because of his advocacy on behalf
of fighting cancer. I committed to appoint him a long time ago.”

The costs for pausing the streetcar project back in
December remain unknown, but city officials are already looking into
what the next phase of the project would cost.

Mayor John Cranley could dismantle a deal that would
produce a grocery store, 300 luxury apartments and a new parking garage
downtown. Cranley says he doesn’t want millions put toward the deal, even
though the developer involved plans to invest another
$60 million. Councilman Chris Seelbach says the deal isn’t dead just
because of the mayor’s opposition, and City Council could act to bypass
the mayor, just like the legislative body did with the streetcar project
and responsible bidder. To Seelbach, the deal is necessary to bring
much-needed residential space and an accessible grocery store downtown.

Cincinnati officials and startup executives will try to
bring Google Fiber, which provides Internet speeds 100 times faster than
normal broadband, to Cincinnati. Google plans to hold a national
competition to see which cities are most deserving of its fiber
services. “Over the last several years, Cincinnati’s innovation
ecosystem has made tremendous strides,” Councilman P.G. Sittenfeld said
in a statement. “We’re increasingly becoming a magnet for talented
entrepreneurs across the country who want to come here to bring their
big ideas to life. We need to ensure that we have the modern
technological infrastructure to make Cincinnati nationally competitive.”

Cincinnati’s operating budget gap for fiscal 2015 now
stands at $22 million, up from an earlier forecast of $18.5 million,
largely because of extra spending on police pushed by Cranley and a
majority of City Council. The city must balance its operating budget
each year, which means the large gap will likely lead to layoffs and
service cuts.

Cranley won’t re-appoint the chair of Cincinnati’s Board
of Health. When asked why, Chairwoman Joyce Kinley told City Council’s
Budget and Finance Committee that Cranley told her “he had to fulfill a
campaign promise.” Some city officials say they worry Cranley is putting
politics over the city’s needs.

Troubled restaurant Mahogany’s needs to pay back rent or
move out, The Banks’ landlord declared Monday. The deciding moment
for Mahogany’s comes after months of struggles, which restaurant owner
Liz Rogers blames on the slow development of the riverfront.

City Council yesterday expressed support for a barebones
parking plan that would upgrade all meters to accept credit card
payments and increase enforcement around the city, which should boost
annual revenues. The plan does not increase rates or hours at meters, as
Mayor John Cranley originally called for. It also doesn’t allow people
to pay for parking meters through smartphones. The plan ultimately means
death for the parking privatization plan, which faced widespread
criticism after the previous city administration and council passed it
as a means to jumpstart new investments and help fix the city’s
operating budget and pension system.

Councilman Christopher Smitherman plans to pursue changes
to the city’s political structure to give more power to the mayor and
less to the city manager. Smitherman says the current system is broken
because it doesn’t clearly define the role of the mayor. Under
Smitherman’s system, the mayor would run the city and hire department
heads; the city manager, who currently runs the city and handles hiring,
would primarily preside over budget issues; and City Council would pass
legislation and act as a check to the mayor. Smitherman aims to put the
plan to voters this November.

The Cincinnati Art Museum maintains five political
cartoons from the famed Dr. Seuss (Theodore Seuss Geisel), but none are
currently on public display. The cartoons call back to the history before
World War II, when most of the world played ignorant to the horrors of
the Holocaust and Americans had yet to enter the war. Dr. Seuss loathed the villains on the world stage, and his cartoons promoted a
message of interventionism that would eventually lead him to join the
Army to help in the fight against the Axis powers. When he returned home, he would
write the famous stories and books he’s now so well known for.

Mayor Cranley and some council members appear reluctant to
accept a routine grant application that would allow the Cincinnati Health
Department to open two more clinics because of the potential effect the
clinics could have on the city’s budget. Cranley and other council
members also seem concerned that the Health Department played a role in
the recent closing of Neighborhood Health Care, which shut down four
clinics and three school-based programs after it lost federal funding.

Ohio legislators approved a bill that forces absentee
voters to submit more information and reduces the amount of time
provisional voters have to confirm their identities from 10 days to one
week. For Democrats, the bill adds to previous concerns that Republicans
are attempting to suppress voters. The bill now goes to Gov. John
Kasich, a Republican who’s expected to sign the measure into law.

The mayor and a supermajority of City Council backs
efforts to establish a domestic partner registry for same-sex couples in Cincinnati,
Councilman Chris Seelbach’s office announced Tuesday.

If adopted by the city, the registry will allow same-sex
couples to gain legal recognition through the city. That would let
same-sex couples apply for domestic partner benefits at smaller businesses, which typically don’t
have the resources to verify legally unrecognized relationships, according to Seelbach’s office.

Specifically, the City Council motion asks the city administration to
reach out to other cities that have adopted domestic partner registries,
including Columbus and eight other Ohio cities, and establish specific guidelines.

Seelbach’s office preemptively outlined a few requirements to sign up: Same-sex
couples will need to pay a $45 fee and prove strong financial
interdependency by showing joint property ownership, power of attorney, a
will and other unspecified requirements.

“As a result of a $45 fee to join the registry, we believe
this will be entirely budget neutral, meaning it won't cost the city or
the taxpayers a single dollar,” Seelbach said in a statement.

If the plan is adopted this year, Cincinnati should gain a perfect
score in the next “Municipal Equality Index” from the Human Rights
Campaign, an advocacy group that, among other tasks, evaluates LGBT inclusion efforts from city to city.
Cincinnati scored a 90 out of 100 in the 2013 rankings, with domestic
partner registries valued at 12 points.

Seelbach expects the administration to report back with a full proposal that City Council can vote on in the coming months.

]]>

Mayor John Cranley on Feb. 12 officially unveiled his
plan for Cincinnati’s parking meters, lots and garages, providing the
first clear option for the city’s parking system since the Greater Cincinnati Port Authority agreed to halt the previous plan.

The proposal seeks to effectively replace the previous
administration’s parking privatization plan, which outsourced the city’s
parking assets to the Port Authority and several private companies, and maintain local control of the city’s parking assets.

Here’s a breakdown of the plan and all its finer details.

What is Cranley’s parking plan?

It’s a plan for Cincinnati’s parking
meters, lots and garages. More specifically, Cranley calls his proposal a
“framework” that focuses on upgrading the city’s parking meters and keeps City Council’s control of parking rates and hours.

Cranley’s plan, based on a Feb. 7 memo from Walker Parking Consultants, achieves his goals in a few ways:

• The city would issue bonds, backed by future parking revenues, to upgrade all parking meters to accept credit card payments.

• The amount of enforcement officers under the city’s
payroll would increase to 15, up from five, to provide greater coverage
of the city’s parking meters. (Currently, a few areas, including major
hubs like the University of Cincinnati and Over-the-Rhine, are
effectively unenforced for two to five hours a day, according to Walker.)

• Neighborhood meter rates would go up by 25 cents to 75 cents an hour. Downtown rates would remain at $2 an hour.

• Sundays and holidays remain free.

Cranley says the underlying idea is to maintain a few key
principles, particularly local control over rates and hours. He cautions
Walker’s proposal, including expanded enforcement hours, could change with public input and as City Council puts together the final plan.

Does the plan let people use smartphones to pay for parking meters?

No. Cranley says the upgraded meters will support the
technology, but it will be up to council to decide whether it’s enabled in the
future.

Smartphone capability is a double-edged sword: It introduces its own set of costs, including shorter battery life for meters. It also allows customers to avoid under- and overpaying at parking meters, which decreases citation and meter revenues. But smartphone access also increases ease of use, which could lead to higher revenues by making it easier to pay.

The parking privatization plan promised to provide smartphone access at all parking meters. The previous administration and Port
Authority championed the feature as key to increasing convenience and revenue.

OK, that explains the parking meters. What about the parking garages?

Cranley’s plan makes two changes to garages:

• The Port Authority would take over Fountain Square South
Garage. The Port would be required to cover expenses for the garage,
but any net revenue could be used on projects within the city.

• The city would issue bonds, backed by future parking revenues, to build a garage at 7th and Broadway streets.

Otherwise, things remain the same as today.

In other words, the city would be on the hook for
parking garage repairs and upgrades, which Walker estimates would cost
roughly $8 million in capital expenses over the next five years.

But the city would also continue directly receiving around $2 million per year in net revenue from parking garages, according to Walker.

Still, the city isn’t allowed under state law to use the revenue from parking garages for anything outside the parking system.

The parking privatization plan tried to do away with the restriction by putting the Port Authority in charge of garages. State law allows agencies like the Port to tap into garage revenues for other uses, such as development projects.

But without the previous administration’s plan, Cranley claims the Port Authority declined to take over more facilities beyond Fountain Square South
Garage. Given the rejection, Cranley says it’s up to council to figure out another way to leverage garage
revenues beyond putting them back in the parking system.

What does Cranley’s plan do about the thousands of parking tickets already owed to the city?

Nothing. By Cranley’s own admission, the city needs to do a
better job collecting what it’s owed. But he says that’s something City
Council will have to deal with in the future.

So why did Cranley oppose the parking privatization plan?

Cranley vehemently opposed giving up local
control of the city’s parking assets. He warned that outsourcing meters to the Port Authority and private companies would create a for-profit incentive to
ratchet up parking rates and enforcement.

The previous administration disputed Cranley’s warnings.
They pointed out an advisory board, chaired by four Port Authority
appointees and one city appointee, would need to unanimously agree on
rate and hour changes, and the changes could be vetoed by the city
manager.

Without any changes from the advisory board, the 30-year privatization plan hiked downtown parking meter rates by 25 cents every three years and neighborhood rates by 25 cents every six years. The plan also expanded enforcement hours to 8 a.m.-9 p.m. in Over-the-Rhine and parts of downtown.

Still, City Council would lose its control of rates and hours under the privatization plan. Cranley and other opponents argued the outsourcing scheme could insulate the parking system from public — and voter — input.

Cranley also opposed the privatization plan’s financial
arrangement.

Under the old deal, the city would receive a lump sum of
$85 million and annual installments of $3 million, as long as required
expenses, such as costly garage upgrades or repairs, were met.

In comparison, the city currently gets roughly $3 million in net revenue from parking meters and another $2 million in net revenue from parking garages. (As noted earlier, the parking garage revenue can only be used for parking expenses.)

Cranley characterizes the lump sum as
“borrowing from the future” because it uses upfront money that could
instead be taken in by the city as annual revenue.

It solidifies the death of the parking privatization plan. That’s important to begin the process of legally dismantling the previous plan.

The plan also increases net parking meter revenues from roughly $3 million to $6 million in the next budget year and more than $7 million per year within five years, according to Walker’s original estimates. (The estimates are likely too high because they assumed evening hours would expand around the University of Cincinnati, Short Vine in Corryville, Over-the-Rhine and downtown. But Cranley shelved the expansion of hours, with no estimates for how the changes will affect revenues.)

Since parking meter revenue, unlike garage revenue, can be used for non-parking expenses, the extra revenue could help plug the $20 million gap in the $370 million operating budget.

Why do some people oppose Cranley’s plan?

Some people supported the parking privatization plan. They
saw the lump sum as a great opportunity to invest in development
projects around the city. Without the lump sum, critics claim Cranley’s
plan accepts all the pain of the previous plan — increased
enforcement, rates and hours — for very little gain, even though the city would get more annual revenue and upgraded parking meters and garages.

Politics are also involved. After the contentious
streetcar debate, there’s not much Cranley can do without some critics speaking out.

When will Cranley’s plan go into effect?

City Council first has to approve Cranley’s plan for it to
become law. Council will likely take up and debate the plan at the
Neighborhood Committee on Feb. 24 and set a more concrete timeline
after that.

This blog post will be regularly updated as more information becomes available. Latest update: Feb. 19.

Gov. John Kasich’s administration has led an aggressive
effort to shut down abortion clinics around the state, and a clinic in
Sharonville, Ohio, could be the next to close after the administration
denied a request that would have allowed the clinic to stay open without an
emergency patient transfer agreement. The process has apparently
involved high-ranking officials in the Ohio Department of Health, which
one regulator says is unusual. The
threat to the Sharonville clinic follows the passage of several new anti-abortion
regulations through the latest state budget, but state officials say the
new regulations were unnecessary to deny the Sharonville clinic’s
request to stay open.

Unions broadly support Democratic gubernatorial
candidate Ed FitzGerald’s campaign, but at least one union-funded group,
Affiliated Construction Trades (ACT) Ohio, seems to be throwing its
weight behind Kasich, a Republican. The surprising revelation shows
not every union group has kept a grudge against Kasich and other
Republicans after they tried to limit public employees’ collective
bargaining rights through Senate Bill 5 in 2011. ACT Ohio says its
support for Kasich is related to jobs, particularly Kasich’s support for
infrastructure projects. The jobs market actually stagnated after
Kasich took office, which some political scientists say could
cost Kasich his re-election bid even though economists say the governor isn’t to blame.

City officials on Monday announced a new public safety
initiative that promises to put more cops on the streets, focus on “hot
spots” of crime, restart the gang unit and do more to reach out to
youth.

The comprehensive plan comes after a rough start to the
year, with homicides and violent crime ticking up even as the weather
remains cold.

Among other initiatives, the plan will add more cops on
the ground through new hires, more overtime and a new recruit class — the first since 2008.

“The message to people is that help is on the way,” Mayor John Cranley said.

The plan will come at higher costs to an already-strained
operating budget. Cranley said the Cincinnati Police Department set
aside nearly $1 million for the proposal through June, while the remaining $5.6 million should be
funded in the city’s $370-plus million operating budget.

When asked whether initiatives like the one announced Monday will hurt the budget, Cranley reiterated his long-standing
position that public safety takes top priority in the city budget.

Cincinnati Police Chief Jeffrey Blackwell said the refocus
intends to prevent, not just solve, crimes. He acknowledged more cops alone
won’t end the city’s crime problem, but he argued increasing the level of evidence-based enforcement
— through new tactics supported by more cops on the streets — could
make a difference.

Cranley and Blackwell cautioned the results might not be
immediate, but they said it’s an important step to stop levels of crime
local residents are clearly unhappy with.

Hot spot policing carries a high level of
empirical support. In two different studies from Rutgers and the
Ministry of Justice in the Netherlands, researchers argued the strategy
doesn’t always displace crime; it can also prevent crime by deterring
and discouraging future incidents in hot spots and surrounding areas —
what researchers call a “diffusion” of benefits.

But the concept also needs to be executed carefully. In
New York City, “stop and frisk” became a fairly unpopular type of hot
spot policing after somereports found the strategy targeted racial
makeups in neighborhoods more than levels of crime.

Of course, better policing isn’t the only way to combat
crime. As two examples, lead abatement and ending the war on drugs could
prevent violence by reducing aggression and eliminating a huge source
of income for drug cartels.

This story was updated to include more information from the city manager’s memo.

]]>

Mayor John Cranley plans to address long-term unemployment
in Cincinnati with several new initiatives, some of which could get
support from the White House, he told CityBeat yesterday. According to Cranley, the idea is to end employer discrimination against the
long-term unemployed or land the long-term unemployed into jobs to end
the job-crippling gap in their resumes. Cranley’s push against long-term
unemployment comes in preparation of his visit today to the White
House, which is looking for different ways to tackle the sluggish
economy without going through a gridlocked Congress.

Republican Secretary of State Jon Husted said it would be “logical”
to keep an early voting location downtown even if the Hamilton County
Board of Elections moves its offices to Mount Airy. Husted’s comments
imply local Republicans are alone in their effort to move early
voting to a new Mount Airy location, where only one bus line runs.
Democrats oppose the move because it would limit voting access for
people who rely on public transportation. But local Republicans claim
free parking at the facility would outweigh the lack of bus access. As
the secretary of state, Husted could break the board’s
tie vote over the issue and make the final decision on where its
offices and early voting end up.

Gov. John Kasich threatened to veto a “puny” oil and gas
tax, casting doubts on the current proposal in the Ohio legislature. The
debate has put Kasich and his fellow Republicans in the General
Assembly at odds as the state undergoes a bit of an oil and gas boom
because of fracking, a drilling technique that pumps millions of gallons
of water, sand and chemicals underground to unlock oil and gas reserves.
Kasich has been pushing to reform and increase the severance tax for
the state’s oil and gas producers. But Republican legislators have
largely resisted Kasich’s call to action, instead pushing a proposal
that increases the severance tax by much less than what the governor
proposed two years ago. In both Kasich and legislators’ proposals, the
raised revenue would be used for an income tax cut.

This year’s Neighborhood Enhancement Program will target
Walnut Hills and East Price Hill. The program aims to address a number
of issues, including the number of calls to police, building code
violations, vacant buildings, drug arrests, graffiti, junk cars, litter
and weeds.

The Feb. 4 debate between Bill Nye the Science Guy and Creation
Museum Founder Ken Ham over evolution and biblical creationism will
stream live at The Cincinnati Enquirer. Evolution is taken as fact in the scientific world, but creationists deny its truth despite the clear, overwhelming evidence.

Mayor John Cranley plans to address the city’s long-term unemployment problems with a set of new initiatives, some of which could get support from the White House, he told CityBeat Thursday.

One of the initiatives is in direct response to President Barack
Obama’s call, heard by millions during the State of the Union Tuesday,
to get private companies on board with ending discrimination against the
long-term unemployed.

Specifically, Cranley says he helped get Procter &
Gamble and other local companies to agree to join the president’s
initiative.

“It wasn’t that hard to sell them on it, but they've got a
lot of things going on,” Cranley says. “Getting their attention and
focus on these things is one of the great powers that I have. I can help
ask people to give back in ways they just haven’t thought of before.”

With a visit to the White House planned for Friday,
Cranley hopes his quick response to Obama’s call could help the city
land future federal grants for programs that address long-term
unemployment.

As an example, Cranley points to a new White House
initiative that asks cities to develop innovative pilot programs that help
the long-term unemployed. The initiative will award federal grants, which Cranley estimates at a couple million
dollars per city, to the 10 best
proposals.

In preparation, the city is partnering with several local
organizations, including the Workforce Investment Board and United Way
of Greater Cincinnati, to develop a unique plan. How the city’s proposal
looks ultimately depends on the constraints set by the application
requirements, but Cranley cited more educational opportunities and
subsidies for companies that hire the long-term unemployed as two examples
cities might undertake.

The proposal, however it looks, would come in addition to
Cranley’s Hand Up Initiative, which he plans to fund through this year’s
city budget. As part of the initiative, the city will first partner
with Cincinnati Cooks, Cincinnati Works and Solid Opportunities for
Advancement and Retention (SOAR) to provide more job training
opportunities. Participants who graduate from those programs can then
apply to the Transitional Jobs Program, which provides short-term,
part-time work opportunities to people as they look for long-term,
full-time jobs.

The initiative will begin as a pilot program for the first two years,
but it could eventually expand with more partnerships and job training
opportunities, according to Cranley.

If successfully carried out, Cranley’s proposals could help break the long-term unemployment trends that keep so many Americans jobless in the first place.

In one study, Rand Ghayad of Northeastern University sent
out 4,800 fake resumes for 600 job openings. Ghayad found people who had
been out of work for six months or more very rarely got called back, even in comparison to applicants without work experience who were unemployed for shorter periods of time.

In other words, diminishing the discrimination on the employer’s side or ongoing joblessness on the potential employee’s side could be enough to land more people in jobs.

A proper solution to the issue could also go a long way to picking up the nation’s sluggish job market. By the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities’ estimate,
nearly 38 percent of the unemployed in December had been unemployed for
27 weeks or longer — the highest rate in six decades. In comparison, the
rate was below 20 percent prior to the recession.

“In the end, we want a city that isn’t just good for
future residents,” Cranley says, referencing the economic momentum in
Over-the-Rhine, downtown and uptown that might benefit future
Cincinnatians. “We need a city solution that grows the capacity and
builds the opportunities for residents who are already here and families
that are already dealing with poverty.”

]]>

Mayor John Cranley yesterday offered free space to the
Hamilton County Board of Elections at the city-owned Shillito’s building
to keep the board’s offices and early voting downtown. The idea comes
in the middle of a debate between Democrats and Republicans on the
Board of Elections over whether they should move their offices — and early
voting — to a Mount Airy facility, where only one bus line runs, to
consolidate county services and avoid the cost
of rent. Hamilton County Commissioner Greg Hartmann said there
won’t be enough occupancy at the Mount Airy location if the Board of
Elections decides not to move there. For the county, a certain amount of
occupancy must be filled at Mount Airy to financially justify the move
and the renovations it would require. Without the move, the county will
need to find another location or means to build a new county crime lab.

Hamilton County Commissioner Todd Portune yesterday
refused to announce whether he will actually run against gubernatorial
candidate Ed FitzGerald in a Democratic primary, even though he told The Cincinnati Enquirer
the day before that he already made a decision. At this point,
Portune’s lack of organization and name recognition means his chances of beating FitzGerald are slim to none.

Ohio’s December unemployment rate dropped to 7.2
percent from 7.4 percent the month before. The amount of employed
and unemployed both increased compared to the previous year. The
state of the economy could decide this year’s statewide elections, even if state
officials aren’t to credit or blame for economic conditions, as CityBeat covered here.

It is perfectly legal to forgive back taxes in Hamilton
County. Supporters argue the practice removes a tax burden that likely
wasn’t going to get paid anyway, but opponents worry it could be misused and take away
revenue from schools and other public services that rely on property
taxes.

A new Ohio House bill delays the transition from the Ohio
Graduation Test to new end-of-course exams. The delay aims to provide
more time to vet the tests and allow schools to better prepare for the
changes.

Mayor John Cranley on Thursday offered the Hamilton County Board of Elections free space at the city-owned Shillito’s building to keep their offices and early voting
downtown.

The offer comes in the middle of a contentious debate
between Democrats and Republicans on the Board of Elections over whether
the county should move the board to a former hospital at Mount Airy,
where only one bus line runs.

The Board of Elections currently rents its offices from a private landlord. Moving to the Mount Airy facility would place the board on county-owned property and allow the county to avoid paying rent.

Along with the Board of Elections move, the county wants
to establish a new crime lab at the Mount Airy location. Consolidating
the crime lab and Board of Elections at the Mount Airy facility would
provide the critical mass necessary to financially justify the move and
the renovations it would require, according to county officials.

To solve the critical mass issue if the board moves to the
former Shillito’s building instead, Cranley, a Democrat, said he’s willing to look into
moving some city police services, including SWAT operations, to the
Mount Airy facility.

“Without the Board of Elections coming with the crime lab, that’s not enough occupancy,” he said. “There would be some good potential co-location opportunities with the city (at the Mount Airy facility), but not enough to take up 400,000 square feet.”

Hartmann said it’s now up to the Board of Elections to accept or reject the Mount Airy facility. If the board declines to move to Mount Airy, Hartmann explained the county would likely drop the Mount Airy plan and the county coroner would go without a new crime lab.

For the city, Cranley’s offer raises questions about what other potential uses exist for the Shillito’s building, given the high property demand downtown. But Cranley said there’s
currently no credible attempt at marketing the facility for other uses.

“The building is vacant, and we spend over $100,000 a year
just to maintain a vacant building,” Cranley said. “I believe that
getting someone in there that takes a significant amount of space is
going to open up the rest of the building, which would be over 200,000
square feet, to make it more marketable. I think long-term it would be
better for the city financially.”

He added, “In the short-term I think there are some things
more important than money. And I think the symbolism of keeping the
Board of Elections and voting downtown is just worth it.”

City Council appears to agree with the mayor. Shortly after Cranley announced his offer, council passed a symbolic resolution opposing the Mount Airy move.

From an electoral perspective, part of the issue is which
voting location would favor Democrats or Republicans. Democrats tend to
dominate in urban areas like downtown, while Republicans could benefit
from a facility in Mount Airy that’s closer to suburban voters.

State Rep. Alicia Reece, who joined Cranley for the
announcement, tried to defuse concerns that she, Cranley and other Democrats are
trying to keep voting downtown for electoral gains.

“The reality is the Board of Elections at its current
location has declared both Democrat and Republican winners of
elections,” Reece said. “I think the focus is to just make sure that we
have a facility that everyone can have access to, whether you’re driving
or whether you’re on the bus.”

]]>

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Ed FitzGerald on Friday announced his new running mate: Sharen Neuhardt, a Dayton-area business
attorney and twice-failed candidate for Congress. The choice boosts the
ticket’s credentials with women and abortion-rights advocates, but it
also reinforces support for pro-choice policies that upset many Republicans and
conservatives. FitzGerald originally picked State Sen. Eric Kearney as
his running mate, but Kearney dropped out of the race after multiple
media reports uncovered he owed more than $800,000 in tax debt. CityBeat covered the gubernatorial race and how the economy could play into it in further detail here.

Mayor John Cranley on Friday reiterated his opposition to double dipping, even though he supports hiring an assistant city
manager who will take advantage of the practice. Because Bill Moller is a
city retiree, he will be eligible to double dip — simultaneously take a
salary ($147,000 a year) and pension — when the city hires him in
February. Cranley called the practice “abusive” on the campaign trail,
but he says it’s up to City Council to pass legislation that prevents it.

Hamilton County Juvenile Court Judge Tracie Hunter on
Friday pleaded not guilty to nine felony charges, including accusations
of backdating court documents, theft in office and misusing her county
credit card. The Ohio Supreme Court on Jan. 10 replaced Hunter until her case is decided. The felony charges are just the latest for the judge, who has been mired in controversy
after controversy since before she won her election.

State Rep. Alicia Reece and other activists are pushing an initiative for the November ballot that would embed “voter rights”
into the Ohio Constitution. The Democrat-backed constitutional amendment is in direct
response to Republican-led attempts to shrink early voting periods and
restrict access to the ballot.

A propane gas shortage in some parts of the state led Gov.
John Kasich to suspend state and federal laws that keep propane
suppliers off the roads on weekends.

State Treasurer Josh Mandel’s failed Senate campaign sold
an SUV totaled in March — effectively averting an insurance review that
might have clarified the vehicle’s use and insurance status — shortly after
questions arose over the continued use of the vehicle months after
Mandel’s Senate campaign ended.

Secondhand smoke increases the odds of hospital
readmission for children with asthma, according to a study from
Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center and Penn State Milton S.
Hershey Children’s Hospital.

Mayor John Cranley told CityBeat Friday that he's still troubled by the practice of "double dipping," but he said the incoming assistant city manager is only eligible to receive a salary and pension benefits because of policy set by City Council.

Bill Moller will be rehired by the city in February to fill in as assistant city manager. Because Moller is a city retiree, he'll be eligible to draw a city salary ($147,000 a year) and pension benefits.

The concern: Allowing city workers to double dip, or tap into both a
salary and pension benefits, could encourage the kinds of abuse
already seen in other municipalities, where public workers can reach eligibility for
maximum pension benefits, retire one day and get rehired the next day to effectively receive both a salary and pension.

The extra cost — effectively a double payout for city retirees who are rehired — could further strain Cincinnati's structurally imbalanced operating budget.

On the campaign trail, Cranley called double dipping "abusive" after City Council repealed a ban on the practice so the administration could hire John Deatrick, a city retiree, to lead the $132.8 million streetcar project.

Cranley said he will sign any legislation reinstating the ban on double dipping. As a council member, Cranley
supported the ban when it was originally instated in 2008.

Under the previous ban, city retirees rejoining the administration would need to temporarily forfeit pension benefits or face substantial limits on salaries and health benefits.

Despite his opposition to double dipping, Cranley cautioned that he still supports Moller's hire.

"Obviously I like Bill Moller," he said. "But the city manager is working within current policy."

The city administration on Tuesday justified Moller's hire by pointing to his previous budget and finance experience in Cincinnati, Hamilton and Covington.

"At this point in time, Cincinnati needs not only someone
who is proficient in all aspects of municipal finance, but in the
aspects of the city of Cincinnati’s finances in particular. Mr. Moller
has that experience," wrote Interim City Manager Scott Stiles in a memo.

It remains unclear whether a ban on double dipping would influence Moller's decision to return to the city administration.

]]>

Ohio's weakening economy could hurt Gov. John Kasich and other Republican incumbents' chances of re-election in 2014, even if they don't deserve the blame for the state of the economy, as some economists claim. For Republican incumbents, the threat is all too real as groups from all sides — left, right and nonpartisan — find the state's economy is failing to live up to the "Ohio miracle" Kasich previously promised. Economists agree state officials often take too much credit for the state of the economy, but political scientists point out that, regardless of who is to blame, the economy is one of the top deciding factors in state elections. For Kasich and other incumbents, it creates a difficult situation: Their influence on the economy might be marginal, but it's all they have to secure re-election.

Despite promising to move on after he failed to permanently halt the $132.8 million streetcar project, Mayor John Cranley continues criticizing the streetcar in interviews and social media. In a Sunday appearance on Local 12, Cranley threatened to replace the Southwest Ohio Regional Transit Authority (SORTA) board, which manages local Metro bus services, in response to its offer to take up streetcar operating costs. (City Council sets SORTA appointments, not the mayor.) The interview, held within weeks of Cranley mocking and arguing with pro-streetcar critics on social media, comes despite Cranley's promises to move on after City Council agreed to continue the project. "As I tell my son when he doesn't get his way, it's time to move on," Cranley
said on Dec. 19.

Streetcar track installation will force the busy intersection at Elm and Liberty streets to close between Jan. 16 at 9 a.m. to Jan. 21 at 7 p.m., city officials announced yesterday. One northbound lane will remain open on Elm Street, but traffic heading east and west on Liberty Street will be redirected.

Construction crews plan to turn the defunct Tower Place mall into Mabley Place, a new parking garage with several retail spaces on the exterior of the first floor. Across Race Street, other developers will turn Pogue's Garage into a 30-story tower with a downtown grocery store, luxury apartments and another garage.

Ohio House Republicans' proposal to revamp the state's tax on the oil and gas industry would not produce enough revenue to cut income taxes for most Ohioans, despite previous promises. According to The Columbus Dispatch, the proposal would only allow for a very small 1-percent across-the-board income tax cut.

Ohio's education system received five C's and an A on a private national report card. The state's middle-of-the-pack performance is largely unchanged from last year's score.

“The fact is they were
willing to cannibalize bus service,” Cranley said,
contrary to SORTA’s insistence that their offer would not have affected bus
services. “I just felt that was a huge violation of what SORTA is supposed to
be about and what Metro is supposed to be about and what public transportation
is supposed to be about.”

Throughout the 24-minute
interview, Cranley referenced the
streetcar project when discussing the city’s parking meters and other subjects
— a continuation of repetitive anti-streetcar tactics Cranley
deployed on the campaign trail and in mayoral debates against former Vice Mayor
Roxanne Qualls.

“I think the project is
wasteful and not worth the investment,” Cranley said
when asked about the project. “I think we would have been better off making the
hard decision to cut bait.”

Still, Cranley later added, “Obviously, since the supermajority of
council went against my wishes, I have to respect the process. So I’m not going
to try to sabotage the streetcar.”

The interview also
follows comments on social media. After the former head of the Cincinnati Art
Museum criticized the streetcar, Cranley tweeted on Dec. 27, “(N)ow some Orwellian commentators
will say art director not ‘progressive.’”

The continued anti-streetcar rhetoric comes despite
promises to move on that Cranley made after Councilman Kevin Flynn announced he would provide the
final vote needed to veto-proof City Council’s decision to continue the
streetcar project.

“As I tell my son when he doesn’t get his way, it’s time to move on,” Cranley
said on Dec. 19.

But Cranley’s
heated rhetoric is nothing new in his campaign against the streetcar project.

After the Nov. 5
election, Cranley told The Cincinnati Enquirer
the streetcar debate “is over.” Cranley’s comments
marked a high level of confidence after voters elected a mayor and council
supermajority that seemingly opposed the streetcar project, but his statement
to The Enquirer proved to be wrong after Council Members Flynn, David
Mann and P.G. Sittenfeld decided to continue the
project.

Cranley also called city officials “incompetent” after
they projected that canceling the streetcar project would cost nearly as much as
completing it. Once again, Cranley’s comments proved
to be wrong — an independent audit found city officials were largely correct in
their assessment — but still showed the level of confident, heated rhetoric
that follows the mayor’s campaign against the streetcar project.

At the very least, Cranley’s rhetoric proves
that while the policy debate over the streetcar is over for now, the public discussion is not. The
question is whether the messaging will work as the project moves forward and the streetcar becomes a reality of
Cincinnati.

]]>

City Council yesterday decided Cincinnati will get a streetcar after all. After securing the six votes necessary to overturn a mayoral veto, Mayor John Cranley
conceded that the $132.8 million streetcar project will restart
following a two-week pause. It was a surprising journey for the project,
which largely seemed like the underdog ever since the new mayor and
council took office earlier in the month. In the end, the project gained
its sixth vote from Councilman Kevin Flynn after the philanthropic Haile Foundation signed onto contributing $900,000 a year for 10 years to help underwrite part of the streetcar’s annual operating costs.

Advocacy group FreedomOhio yesterday announced it has enough signatures to place same-sex marriage on Ohio’s 2014 ballot.
The group declined to tell Cleveland.com exactly how many signatures it
had collected so far, but the organization says it’s aiming to collect 1
million before the July filing deadline. At the same time, FreedomOhio
released a poll that found Ohioans are still split on the issue of same-sex
marriage. But the poll also found that a good majority of Ohioans
support FreedomOhio’s gay marriage legalization amendment, which
provides exemptions for religious groups.

Gov. John Kasich yesterday signed a bipartisan Medicaid
overhaul bill that seeks to control costs by establishing an
oversight commission and a target for spending growth. The legislation
also sets a focus on health care outcomes to ensure quality
standards in the government-run program. Both parties pursued the bill
to tamp down on health care costs that have been taking up more of the
state’s budget in the past few years.

A new report from the state attorney general’s office
found nearly half the businesses who received state aid in 2012 did not
fulfill their end of the deal in terms of producing new jobs and other promises.

Ohio’s unemployment rate dropped to 7.4 percent in
November, down from 7.5 percent the month before. But the number was well above the 6.8
percent rate from November 2012, indicating a decline in job growth in
the past year.

Police arrested the mother of a 3-year-old for falsification and the mother’s boyfriend for accidentally shooting the child on Tuesday.

Today is Homeless Memorial Day, a day meant to commemorate those who died in 2013 while experiencing homelessness. The Greater Cincinnati Homeless Coalition is gathering at 5:30 p.m. at the corner of 14th and Elm streets to honor the occasion.